Statics is the study of bodies and structures that are in equilibrium. For a body to be in equilibrium, there must be no net force acting on it. In addition, there must be no net torque acting on it. Figure 17A shows a body in equilibrium under the action of equal and opposite forces. Figure 17B shows a body acted on by equal and opposite forces that produce a net torque, tending to start it rotating. It is therefore not in equilibrium.

When a body has a net force and a net torque acting on it owing to a combination of forces, all the forces acting on the body may be replaced by a single (imaginary) force called the resultant, which acts at a single point on the body, producing the same net force and the same net torque. The body can be brought into equilibrium by applying to it a real force at the same point, equal and opposite to the resultant. This force is called the equilibrant. An example is shown in Figure 18.

The torque on a body due to a given force depends on the reference point chosen, since the torque τ by definition equals r × F, where r is a vector from some chosen reference point to the point of application of the force. Thus, for a body to be at equilibrium, not only must the net force on it be equal to zero but the net torque with respect to any point must also be zero. Fortunately, it is easily shown for a rigid body that, if the net force is zero and the net torque is zero with respect to any one point, then the net torque is also zero with respect to any other point in the frame of reference.

A body is formally regarded as rigid if the distance between any set of two points in it is always constant. In reality no body is perfectly rigid. When equal and opposite forces are applied to a body, it is always deformed slightly. The body’s own tendency to restore the deformation has the effect of applying counterforces to whatever is applying the forces, thus obeying Newton’s third law. Calling a body rigid means that the changes in the dimensions of the body are small enough to be neglected, even though the force produced by the deformation may not be neglected.

Equal and opposite forces acting on a rigid body may act so as to compress the body (Figure 19A) or to stretch it (Figure 19B). The bodies are then said to be under compression or under tension, respectively. Strings, chains, and cables are rigid under tension but may collapse under compression. On the other hand, certain building materials, such as brick and mortar, stone, or concrete, tend to be strong under compression but very weak under tension.

The most important application of statics is to study the stability of structures, such as edifices and bridges. In these cases, gravity applies a force to each component of the structure as well as to any bodies the structure may need to support. The force of gravity acts on each bit of mass of which each component is made, but for each rigid component it may be thought of as acting at a single point, the centre of gravity, which is in these cases the same as the centre of mass.

To give a simple but important example of the application of statics, consider the two situations shown in Figure 20. In each case, a mass m is supported by two symmetric members, each making an angle θ with respect to the horizontal. In Figure 20A the members are under tension; in Figure 20B they are under compression. In either case, the force acting along each of the members is shown to be

The force in either case thus becomes intolerably large if the angle θ is allowed to be very small. In other words, the mass cannot be hung from a perfectly horizontal memberthin horizontal members incapable of carrying either the compression or the tension forces of the mass.

The ancient Greeks built magnificent stone temples; however, the horizontal stone slabs that constituted the roofs of the temples could not support even their own weight over more than a very small span. For this reason, one characteristic that identifies a Greek temple is the many closely spaced pillars needed to hold up the flat roof. The problem posed by equation (71) was solved by the ancient Romans, who incorporated into their architecture the arch, a structure that supports its weight by compression, corresponding to Figure 20B.

A suspension bridge illustrates the use of tension. The weight of the span and any traffic on it is supported by cables, which are placed under tension by the weight. Corresponding to Figure 20A, the cables are not stretched to be horizontal, but rather they are always hung so as to have substantial curvature.

It should be mentioned in passing that equilibrium under static forces is not sufficient to guarantee the stability of a structure. It must also be stable against perturbations such as the additional forces that might be imposed, for example, by winds or by earthquakes. Analysis of the stability of structures under such perturbations is an important part of the job of an engineer or architect.

Rotation about a fixed axis

Consider a rigid body that is free to rotate about an axis fixed in space. Because of the body’s inertia, it resists being set into rotational motion, and equally important, once rotating, it resists being brought to rest. Exactly how that inertial resistance depends on the mass and geometry of the body is discussed here.

Take the axis of rotation to be the z-axis. A vector in the x-y plane from the axis to a bit of mass fixed in the body makes an angle θ with respect to the x-axis. If the body is rotating, θ changes with time, and the body’s angular frequency is

ω is also known as the angular velocity. If ω is changing in time, there is also an angular acceleration α, such that

Because linear momentum p is related to linear speed v by p = mv, where m is the mass, and because force F is related to acceleration a by F = ma, it is reasonable to assume that there exists a quantity I that expresses the rotational inertia of the rigid body in analogy to the way m expresses the inertial resistance to changes in linear motion. One would expect to find that the angular momentum is given by

and that the torque (twisting force) is given by

One can imagine dividing the rigid body into bits of mass labeled m1, m2, m3, and so on. Let the bit of mass at the tip of the vector be called mi, as indicated in Figure 21. If the length of the vector from the axis to this bit of mass is Ri, then mi’s linear velocity vi equals ωRi (see equation [31]), and its angular momentum Li equals miviRi (see equation [44]), or miRi2ω. The angular momentum of the rigid body is found by summing all the contributions from all the bits of mass labeled i = 1, 2, 3 . . . :

In a rigid body, the quantity in parentheses in equation (76) is always constant (each bit of mass mi always remains the same distance Ri from the axis). Thus if the motion is accelerated, then

Recalling that τ = dL/dt, one may write

(These equations may be written in scalar form, since L and τ are always directed along the axis of rotation in this discussion.) Comparing equations (76) and (78) with (74) and (75), one finds that

The quantity I is called the moment of inertia.

According to equation (79), the effect of a bit of mass on the moment of inertia depends on its distance from the axis. Because of the factor Ri2, mass far from the axis makes a bigger contribution than mass close to the axis. It is important to note that Ri is the distance from the axis, not from a point. Thus, if xi and yi are the x and y coordinates of the mass mi, then Ri2 = xi2 + yi2, regardless of the value of the z coordinate. The moments of inertia of some simple uniform bodies are given in the table.

The moment of inertia of any body depends on the axis of rotation. Depending on the symmetry of the body, there may be as many as three different moments of inertia about mutually perpendicular axes passing through the centre of mass. If the axis does not pass through the centre of mass, the moment of inertia may be related to that about a parallel axis that does so. Let Ic be the moment of inertia about the parallel axis through the centre of mass, r the distance between the two axes, and M the total mass of the body. Then

In other words, the moment of inertia about an axis that does not pass through the centre of mass is equal to the moment of inertia for rotation about an axis through the centre of mass (Ic) plus a contribution that acts as if the mass were concentrated at the centre of mass, which then rotates about the axis of rotation.

The dynamics of rigid bodies rotating about fixed axes may be summarized in three equations. The angular momentum is L = Iω, the torque is τ = Iα, and the kinetic energy is K = 12Iω2.

Rotation about a moving axis

The general motion of a rigid body tumbling through space may be described as a combination of translation of the body’s centre of mass and rotation about an axis through the centre of mass. The linear momentum of the body of mass M is given by

where vc is the velocity of the centre of mass. Any change in the momentum is governed by Newton’s second law, which states that

where F is the net force acting on the body. The angular momentum of the body with respect to any reference point may be written as

where Lc is the angular momentum of rotation about an axis through the centre of mass, r is a vector from the reference point to the centre of mass, and r × p is therefore the angular momentum associated with motion of the centre of mass, acting as if all the body’s mass were concentrated at that point. The quantity Lc in equation (83) is sometimes called the body’s spin, and r × p is called the orbital angular momentum. Any change in the angular momentum of the body is given by the torque equation,

An example of a body that undergoes both translational and rotational motion is the Earth, which rotates about an axis through its centre once per day while executing an orbit around the Sun once per year. Because the Sun exerts no torque on the Earth with respect to its own centre, the orbital angular momentum of the Earth is constant in time. However, the Sun does exert a small torque on the Earth with respect to the planet’s centre, owing to the fact that the Earth is not perfectly spherical. The result is a slow shifting of the Earth’s axis of rotation, known as the precession of the equinoxes (see below).

The kinetic energy of a body that is both translating and rotating is given by

where I is the moment of inertia and ω is the angular velocity of rotation about the axis through the centre of mass.

A common example of combined rotation and translation is rolling motion, as exhibited by a billiard ball rolling on a table, or a ball or cylinder rolling down an inclined plane. Consider the latter example, illustrated in Figure 22. Motion is impelled by the force of gravity, which may be resolved into two components, FN, which is normal to the plane, and Fp, which is parallel to it. In addition to gravity, friction plays an essential role. The force of friction, written as f, acts parallel to the plane, in opposition to the direction of motion, at the point of contact between the plane and the rolling body. If f is very small, the body will slide without rolling. If f is very large, it will prevent motion from occurring. The magnitude of f depends on the smoothness and composition of the body and the plane, and it is proportional to FN, the normal component of the force.

Consider a case in which f is just large enough to cause the body (sphere or cylinder) to roll without slipping. The motion may be analyzed from the point of view of an axis passing through the point of contact between the rolling body and the plane. Remarkably, the point of contact may always be regarded to be instantaneously at rest. To understand why, suppose that the rolling body has radius R and angular velocity ω about its centre-of-mass axis. Then, with respect to its own axis, each point on the circular cross section in Figure 22 moves with instantaneous tangential linear speed vc = Rω. In particular, the point of contact is moving backward with this speed relative to the centre of mass. But with respect to the inclined plane, the centre of mass is moving forward with exactly this same speed. The net effect of the two equal and opposite speeds is that the point of contact is always instantaneously at rest. Therefore, although friction acts at that point, no work is done by friction, so mechanical energy (potential plus kinetic) may be regarded as conserved.

With respect to the axis through the point of contact, the torque is equal to RFp, giving rise to an angular acceleration α given by Ipα = RFp, where Ip is the moment of inertia about the point-of-contact axis and can be determined by applying equation (80) relating moments of inertia about parallel axes (Ip = I + MR2). Thus,

From this result, the motion of the body is easily obtained using the fact that the velocity of the centre of mass is vc = Rω and hence the linear acceleration of the centre of mass is ac = Rα.

Notice that, although without friction no angular acceleration would occur, the force of friction does not affect the magnitude of α. Because friction does no work, this same result may be obtained by applying energy conservation. The situation also may be analyzed entirely from the point of view of the centre of mass. In that case, the torque is −fR, but f also provides a linear force on the body. The f may then be eliminated by using Newton’s second law and the fact that the torque equals the moment of inertia times the angular acceleration, once again leading to the same result.

One more interesting fact is hidden in the form of equation (86). The parallel component of the force of gravity is given by

where θ is the angle of inclination of the plane. The moment of inertia about the centre of mass of any body of mass M may be written

where k is a distance called the radius of gyration. Comparison to equation (79) shows that k is a measure of how far from the centre of mass the mass of the body is concentrated. Using equations (87) and (88) in equation (86), one finds that

Thus, the angular acceleration of a body rolling down a plane does not depend on its total mass, although it does depend on its shape and distribution of mass. The same may be said of ac, the linear acceleration of the centre of mass. The acceleration of a rolling ball, like the acceleration of a freely falling object, is independent of its mass. This observation helps to explain why Galileo was able to discover many of the basic laws of dynamics in gravity by studying the behaviour of balls rolling down inclined planes.

Motion in a rotating frame

Centrifugal force

According to the principle of Galilean relativity, if Newton’s laws are true in any reference frame, they are also true in any other frame moving at constant velocity with respect to the first one. Conversely, they do not appear to be true in any frame accelerated with respect to the first. Instead, in an accelerated frame, objects appear to have forces acting on them that are not in fact present. These are called pseudoforces, as described above. Since rotational motion is always accelerated motion, pseudoforces may always be observed in rotating frames of reference.

As one example, a frame of reference in which the Earth is at rest must rotate once per year about the Sun. In this reference frame, the gravitational force attracting the Earth toward the Sun appears to be balanced by an equal and opposite outward force that keeps the Earth in stationary equilibrium. This outward pseudoforce, discussed above, is the centrifugal force.

The rotation of the Earth about its own axis also causes pseudoforces for observers at rest on the Earth’s surface. There is a centrifugal force, but it is much smaller than the force of gravity. Its effect is that, at the Equator, where it is largest, the gravitational acceleration g is about 0.5 percent smaller than at the poles, where there is no centrifugal force. This same centrifugal force is responsible for the fact that the Earth is slightly nonspherical, bulging just a bit at the Equator.

Pseudoforces can have real consequences. The oceanic tides on Earth, for example, are a consequence of centrifugal forces in the Earth-Moon and Earth-Sun systems. The Moon appears to be orbiting the Earth, but in reality both the Moon and the Earth orbit their common centre of mass. The centre of mass of the Earth-Moon system is located inside the Earth nearly three-fourths of the distance from the centre to the surface, or roughly 4,700 kilometres from the centre of the Earth. The Earth rotates about this point approximately once a month. The gravitational attraction of the Moon and the centrifugal force of this rotation are exactly balanced at the centre of the Earth. At the surface of the Earth closest to the Moon, the Moon’s gravity is stronger than the centrifugal force. The ocean’s waters, which are free to move in response to this unbalanced force, tend to build up a small bulge at that point. On the surface of the Earth exactly opposite the Moon, the centrifugal force is stronger than the Moon’s gravity, and a small bulge of water tends to build up there as well. The water is correspondingly depleted at the points 90° on either side of these. Each day the Earth rotates beneath these bulges and troughs, which remain stationary with respect to the Earth-Moon system. The result is two high tides and two low tides every day every place on Earth. The Sun has a similar effect, but of only about half the size; it increases or decreases the size of the tides depending on its relative alignment with the Earth and Moon.

Coriolis force

The Coriolis force is a pseudoforce that operates in all rotating frames. One way to envision it is to imagine a rotating platform (such as a merry-go-round or a phonograph turntable) with a perfectly smooth surface and a smooth block sliding inertially across it. The block, having no (real) forces acting on it, moves in a straight line at constant speed in inertial space. However, the platform rotates under it, so that to an observer on the platform, the block appears to follow a curved trajectory, bending in the opposite direction to the motion of the platform. Since the motion is curved, and hence accelerated, there appears, to the observer, to be a force operating. That pseudoforce is called the Coriolis force.

The Coriolis force also may be observed on the surface of the Earth. For example, many science museums have a pendulum, called a Foucault pendulum, suspended from a long cable with markers to show that its plane of motion rotates slowly. The rotation of the plane of motion is caused by the Coriolis force. The effect is most easily imagined by picturing the pendulum swinging directly above the North Pole. The plane of its motion remains stationary in inertial space, while the Earth rotates once a day beneath it.

At lower latitudes, the effect is a bit more subtle, but it is still present. Imagine that, somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, a projectile is fired due south. As viewed from inertial space, the projectile initially has an eastward component of velocity as well as a southward component because the gun that fired it, which is stationary on the surface of the Earth, was moving eastward with the Earth’s rotation at the instant it was fired. However, since it was fired to the south, it lands at a slightly lower latitude, closer to the Equator. As one moves south, toward the Equator, the tangential speed of the Earth’s surface due to its rotation increases because the surface is farther from the axis of rotation. Thus, although the projectile has an eastward component of velocity (in inertial space), it lands at a place where the surface of the Earth has a larger eastward component of velocity. Thus, to the observer on Earth, the projectile seems to curve slightly to the west. That westward curve is attributed to the Coriolis force. If the projectile were fired to the north, it would seem to curve eastward.

The same analysis applied to a Foucault pendulum explains why its plane of motion tends to rotate in the clockwise direction anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere and in the counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. Storms, known as cyclones, tend to rotate in the opposite direction in each hemisphere, also due to the Coriolis force. Air moves in all directions toward a low-pressure centre. In the Northern Hemisphere, air moving up from the south is deflected eastward, while air moving down from the north is deflected westward. This effect tends to give cyclones a counterclockwise circulation in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, cyclones tend to circulate in the clockwise direction.

Spinning tops and gyroscopes

Figure 23 (top) shows a wheel that is weighted in its rim to maximize its moment of inertia I and that is spinning with angular frequency ω on a horizontal axle supported at both ends. As shown, it has an angular momentum L along the x direction equal to Iω. Now suppose the support at point P is removed, leaving the axle supported only at one end (Figure 23, middle). Gravity, acting on the mass of the wheel as if it were concentrated at the centre of mass, applies a downward force on the wheel. The wheel, however, does not fall. Instead, the axle remains (nearly) horizontal but rotates in the counterclockwise direction as seen from above (Figure 23, bottom). This motion is called gyroscopic precession.

Horizontal precession occurs in this case because the gravitational force results in a torque with respect to the point of suspension, such that τ = r × F and is directed, initially, in the positive y direction. The torque causes the angular momentum L to move toward that direction according to τ = dL/dt. Because τ is perpendicular to L, it does not change the magnitude of the angular momentum, only its direction. As precession proceeds, the torque remains horizontal, and the angular momentum vector, continually redirected by the torque, executes uniform circular motion in the horizontal plane at a frequency Ω, the frequency of precession.

In reality, the motion is a bit more complicated than uniform precession in the horizontal plane. When the support at P is released, the centre of mass of the wheel initially drops slightly below the horizontal plane. This drop reduces the gravitational potential energy of the system, releasing kinetic energy for the orbital motion of the centre of mass as it precesses. It also provides a small component of L in the negative z direction, which balances the angular momentum in the positive z direction that results from the orbital motion of the centre of mass. There can be no net angular momentum in the vertical direction because there is no component of torque in that direction.

One more complication: the initial drop of the centre of mass carries it too far for a stable plane of precession, and it tends to bounce back up after overshooting. This produces an up-and-down oscillation during precession, called nutation (“nodding”). In most cases, nutation is quickly damped by friction in the bearings, leaving uniform precession.

A spinning top undergoes all the motions described above. If it is initially set spinning with a vertical axis, there will be virtually no torque, and conservation of angular momentum will keep the axis vertical for a long time. Eventually, however, friction at the point of contact will require the centre of mass to lower itself, which can only happen if the axis tilts. The spinning will also slow down, making the tilting process easier. Once the top tilts, gravity produces a horizontal torque that leads to precession of the spin axis. The subsequent motion depends on whether the point of contact is fixed or free to slip on the horizontal plane. Vast tomes have been written on the motions of tops.

A gyroscope is a device that is designed to resist changes in the direction of its axis of spin. That purpose is generally accomplished by maximizing its moment of inertia about the spin axis and by spinning it at the maximum practical frequency. Each of these considerations has the effect of maximizing the magnitude of the angular momentum, thus requiring a larger torque to change its direction. It is quite generally true that the torque τ, the angular momentum L, and the precession frequency Ω (defined as a vector along the precession axis in the direction given by the right-hand rule) are related by

Equation (90), illustrated in Figure 24, is called the gyroscope equation.

Gyroscopes are used for a variety of purposes, including navigation. Use of gyroscopes for this purpose is called inertial guidance. The gyroscope is suspended as nearly as possible at its centre of mass, so that gravity does not apply a torque that causes it to precess. The gyroscope tends therefore to point in a constant direction in space, allowing the orientation of the vehicle to be accurately maintained.

One further application of the gyroscope principle may be seen in the precession of the equinoxes. The Earth is a kind of gyroscope, spinning on its axis once each day. The Sun would apply no torque to the Earth if the Earth were perfectly spherical, but it is not. The Earth bulges slightly at the Equator. As indicated in Figure 25, the effect of the Sun’s gravity on the near bulge (larger than it is on the far bulge) results in a net torque about the centre of the Earth. When the Earth is on the other side of the Sun, the net torque remains in the same direction. The torque is small but persistent. It causes the axis of the Earth to precess, about one revolution every 25,800 years.

As seen from the Earth, the Sun passes through the plane of the Equator twice each year. These points are called the equinoxes, and on the days of the equinoxes the hours of daylight and night are equal. From antiquity it has been known that the point in the sky where the Sun intersects the plane of the Equator is not the same each year but rather drifts very slowly to the west. This ancient observation, first explained by Newton, is due to the precession of the Earth’s axis. It is called the precession of the equinoxes.

Analytic approaches

Classical mechanics can, in essence, be reduced to Newton’s laws, starting with the second law, in the form

If the net force acting on a particle is F, knowledge of F permits the momentum p to be found; and knowledge of p permits the position r to be found, by solving the equation

These solutions give the components of p—that is, px, py, and pz—and the components of r—x, y, and z—each as a function of time. To complete the solution, the value of each quantity—px, py, pz, x, y, and z—must be known at some definite time, say, t = 0. If there is more than one particle, an equation in the form of equation (91) must be written for each particle, and the solution will involve finding the six variables x, y, z, px, py, and pz, for each particle as a function of time, each once again subject to some initial condition. The equations may not be independent, however. For example, if the particles interact with one another, the forces will be related by Newton’s third law. In this case (and others), the forces may also depend on time.

If the problem involves more than a very few particles, this method of solution quickly becomes intractable. Furthermore, in many cases it is not useful to express the problem purely in terms of particles and forces. Consider, for example, the problem of a sphere or cylinder rolling without slipping on a plane surface. Rolling without slipping is produced by friction due to forces acting between atoms in the rolling body and atoms in the plane, but the interactions are very complex; they probably are not fully understood even today, and one would like to be able to formulate and solve the problem without introducing them or needing to understand them. For all these reasons, methods that go beyond solving equations (91) and (92) have had to be introduced into classical mechanics.

The methods that have been introduced do not involve new physics. In fact, they are deduced directly from Newton’s laws. They do, however, involve new concepts, new language to describe those concepts, and the adoption of powerful mathematical techniques. Some of those methods are briefly surveyed here.

Configuration space

The position of a single particle is specified by giving its three coordinates, x, y, and z. To specify the positions of two particles, six coordinates are needed, x1, y1, z1, x2, y2, z2. If there are N particles, 3N coordinates will be needed. Imagine a system of 3N mutually orthogonal coordinates in a 3N-dimensional space (a space of more than three dimensions is a purely mathematical construction, sometimes known as a hyperspace). To specify the exact position of one single point in this space, 3N coordinates are needed. However, one single point can represent the entire configuration of all N particles in the problem. Furthermore, the path of that single point as a function of time is the complete solution of the problem. This 3N-dimensional space is called configuration space.

Configuration space is particularly useful for describing what is known as constraints on a problem. Constraints are generally ways of describing the effects of forces that are best not explicitly introduced into the problem. For example, consider the simple case of a falling body near the surface of the Earth. The equations of motion—equations (4), (5), and (6)—are valid only until the body hits the ground. Physically, this restriction is due to forces between atoms in the falling body and atoms in the ground, but, as a practical matter, it is preferable to say that the solutions are valid only for zXXgtXX > 0 (where z = 0 is ground level). This constraint, in the form of an inequality, is very difficult to incorporate directly into the equations of the problem. In the language of configuration space, however, one merely needs to specify that the problem is being solved only in the region of configuration space for which zXXgtXX > 0.

Notice that the constraint mentioned above, rolling without sliding on a plane, cannot easily be described in configuration space, since it is basically a condition on relative velocities of rotation and translation; but another constraint, that the body is restricted to motion along the plane, is easily described in configuration space.

Another type of constraint specifies that a body is rigid. Then, even though the body is composed of a very large number of atoms, it is not necessary to find separately the x, y, and z coordinate of each atom because these are related to those of the other atoms by the condition of rigidity. A careful analysis yields that, rather than needing 3N coordinates (where N may be, for example, 1024 atoms), only 6 are needed: 3 to specify the position of the centre of mass and 3 to give the orientation of the body. Thus, in this case, the constraint has reduced the number of independent coordinates from 3N to 6. Rather than restricting the behaviour of the system to a portion of the original 3N-dimensional configuration space, it is possible to describe the system in a much simpler 6-dimensional configuration space. It should be noted, however, that the six coordinates are not necessarily all distances. In fact, the most convenient coordinates are three distances (the x, y, and z coordinates of the centre of mass of the body) and three angles, which specify the orientation of a set of axes fixed in the body relative to a set of axes fixed in space. This is an example of the use of constraints to reduce the number of dynamic variables in a problem (the x, y, and z coordinates of each particle) to a smaller number of generalized dynamic variables, which need not even have the same dimensions as the original ones.

The principle of virtual work

A special class of problems in mechanics involves systems in equilibrium. The problem is to find the configuration of the system, subject to whatever constraints there may be, when all forces are balanced. The body or system will be at rest (in the inertial rest frame of its centre of mass), meaning that it occupies one point in configuration space for all time. The problem is to find that point. One criterion for finding that point, which makes use of the calculus of variations, is called the principle of virtual work.

According to the principle of virtual work, any infinitesimal virtual displacement in configuration space, consistent with the constraints, requires no work. A virtual displacement means an instantaneous change in coordinates (a real displacement would require finite time during which particles might move and forces might change). To express the principle, label the generalized coordinates r1, r2, . . . , ri, . . . . Then if Fi is the net component of generalized force acting along the coordinate ri,

Here, Fidri is the work done when the generalized coordinate is changed by the infinitesimal amount dri. If ri is a real coordinate (say, the x coordinate of a particle), then Fi is a real force. If ri is a generalized coordinate (say, an angular displacement of a rigid body), then Fi is the generalized force such that Fidri is the work done (for an angular displacement, Fi is a component of torque).

Take two simple examples to illustrate the principle. First consider two particles that are restricted to motion in the x direction and are constrained by a taut string connecting them. If their x coordinates are called x1 and x2, then F1dx1 + F2dx2 = 0 according to the principle of virtual work. But the taut string requires that the particles be displaced the same amount, so that dx1 = dx2, with the result that F1 + F2 = 0. The particles might be in equilibrium, for example, under equal and opposite forces, but F1 and F2 do not need individually to be zero. This is generally true of the Fi in equation (93). As a second example, consider a rigid body in space. Here, the constraint of rigidity has already been expressed by reducing the coordinate space to that of six generalized coordinates. These six coordinates (x, y, z, and three angles) can change quite independently of one another. In other words, in equation (93), the six dri are arbitrary. Thus, the only way equation (93) can be satisfied is if all six Fi are zero. This means that the rigid body can have no net component of force and no net component of torque acting on it. Of course, this same conclusion was reached earlier (see Statics) by less abstract arguments.

Lagrange’s and Hamilton’s equations

Elegant and powerful methods have also been devised for solving dynamic problems with constraints. One of the best known is called Lagrange’s equations. The Lagrangian L is defined as L = T − V, where T is the kinetic energy and V the potential energy of the system in question. Generally speaking, the potential energy of a system depends on the coordinates of all its particles; this may be written as V = V(x1, y1, z1, x2, y2, z2, . . . ). The kinetic energy generally depends on the velocities, which, using the notation vx = dx/dt = ẋ, may be written T = T(ẋ1, ẏ1, ż1, ẋ2, ẏ2, ż2, . . . ). Thus, a dynamic problem has six dynamic variables for each particle—that is, x, y, z and ẋ, ẏ, ż—and the Lagrangian depends on all 6N variables if there are N particles.

In many problems, however, the constraints of the problem permit equations to be written relating at least some of these variables. In these cases, the 6N related dynamic variables may be reduced to a smaller number of independent generalized coordinates (written symbolically as q1, q2, . . . qi, . . . ) and generalized velocities (written as q̇1, q̇2, . . . q̇i, . . . ), just as, for the rigid body, 3N coordinates were reduced to six independent generalized coordinates (each of which has an associated velocity). The Lagrangian, then, may be expressed as a function of all the qi and q̇i. It is possible, starting from Newton’s laws only, to derive Lagrange’s equations

where the notation ∂L/∂qi means differentiate L with respect to qi only, holding all other variables constant. There is one equation of the form (94) for each of the generalized coordinates qi (e.g., six equations for a rigid body), and their solutions yield the complete dynamics of the system. The use of generalized coordinates allows many coupled equations of the form (91) to be reduced to fewer, independent equations of the form (94).

There is an even more powerful method called Hamilton’s equations. It begins by defining a generalized momentum pi, which is related to the Lagrangian and the generalized velocity q̇i by pi = ∂L/∂q̇i. A new function, the Hamiltonian, is then defined by H = ∑iq̇ipi − L. From this point it is not difficult to derive

and

These are called Hamilton’s equations. There are two of them for each generalized coordinate. They may be used in place of Lagrange’s equations, with the advantage that only first derivatives—not second derivatives—are involved.

The Hamiltonian method is particularly important because of its utility in formulating quantum mechanics. However, it is also significant in classical mechanics. If the constraints in the problem do not depend explicitly on time, then it may be shown that H = T + V, where T is the kinetic energy and V is the potential energy of the system—i.e., the Hamiltonian is equal to the total energy of the system. Furthermore, if the problem is isotropic (H does not depend on direction in space) and homogeneous (H does not change with uniform translation in space), then Hamilton’s equations immediately yield the laws of conservation of angular momentum and linear momentum, respectively.